Bitcoin Forum

New York seems to be lagging behind due to the recent release BitLicense of the final version

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London is fast becoming a global hub for development of innovations using digital currency Bitcoin. City institutions including the Bank of England, Barclays, UBS and Goldman Sachs are all looking into the potential for using Bitcoin to speed up processes in traditional finance.

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http://www.cityam.com/218965/london-takes-lead-bitcoin-innovation

Innovation is lovely. Doing actual BTC business in the UK is lagging pitifully behind the US. I wonder how long all the shaky workarounds with EU banks will have to continue before an actual UK bank breathes some life into the whole thing.

They often claim to be waiting for regulation. I assume they'll just claim to be waiting for more when something does actually arrive.

Good to see the UK pushing forward nice and fast. Its things like this: http://www.techworld.com/news/e-commerce/budget-2015-government-invests-10m-in-bitcoin-research-reveals-regulation-plans-3604710, that makes it good aswell

I wouldn't think of New York as the US leaders in Bitcoin innovation, for this you HAVE TO look to Silicon Valley. Afterall, the center of technology innovation in the US is happening in Silicon Valley and SF Bay Area. New York has its contributions but it doesn't lead the show.

And is it accurate to characterize the innovation simply in how big banks are finally deciding to get onboard?

It's good that there isn't ONE center of progress, it keeps development decentralized.

i heard that many times that london is hub for bitcoin business... don't have any real examples for that :/
for sure its easier to do business with bitcoin in london than in US (regulation are absurd there)

That's cos there ain't none. I'm not massively sure where the idea that there are developed in the first place.

The US is a joke in terms of regulation mess but at least they're actually doing something. Nothing much is happening in Britain.

Only one shop I have seen so far that you can walk into in the UK and use Bitcoin to pay for products or get paid in Bitcoin, they are CEX video game store, and they carry a Bitcoin ATM, apart from that I have not heard of any others.  Obviously this is just a small chain of stores, it will take a long time before 'business' moves forward and adopts it.

To be fair that is a pretty big deal. It's a national chain with several hundred branches and it's perfect for people who want to get into BTC. Just hand over some old crap and away you go. That's my main source of BTC use. If there was a national US equivalent the excitement would be off the scale. It's one of the best possible business cases for regular folks so far.

If I want to use it elsewhere I'm somewhat stumped still.

10% of UK GDP is from financial sector - way more loaded than anywhere else in Europe. Within the UK Scotland is even more heavily dependent on the finance sector.

What exactly makes anyone think that George Osbourne is bitcoin friendly ?

I think The Netherlands currently has the lead in Bitcoin innovation.

With places like Arnhem (#1 Bitcoin City in the world), The Hague, and several other initiatives (Amsterdam catching up as well), the highest number of Bitcoin users / nodes per capita, a booming Bitcoin community, tons of startups, lots of Bitcoin meetups and events, and quite reasonable government rules on Bitcoin (at least so far), I'd say The Netherlands is the place to be for Bitcoin innovation.

I guess it depends on what type of innovation we're talking about. If it's consumer/ individual level then the UK is way down compared to other places.

All this bank/ blockchain talk is coming from multinational behemoths. Maybe the actual studies'll be done elsewhere anyway. Let's have some evidence for these claims. 

Are they going to be using bitcoin though? Looks to me like they just want to take advantage of the blockchain tech to save themselves some money.